NCAS Science Themes

• Water in the climate system
• Understanding climate variability and predictability from days to decades
• The science of global and regional climate change
• Regional impacts of climate variability and change
• Contributing to the UK’s next generation Earth system model
• Emerging issues in the modelling of chemistry/climate interactions
• Understanding past composition; predicting the future
• Environmental impact in the anthropocene: future energy use, future transport and megacities and regional climate impact
• Cloud systems and orography
• Mesoscale weather systems
• Urban air quality
• Chemical production and destruction of pollutants
• Aerosols

NCAS Technology Themes

• Exploiting computational science
• Numerical modelling services
• Instrument development
• Field measurement capability
• Data services

These research programmes will continue for the period 2006-2011 and beyond. However the mechanisms by which NERC funds the research will change from 2009 onwards. In 2007 NERC adopted a new strategy, Next Generation Science for Planet Earth. Our research programmes form key ingredients of the NERC strategy. However under this strategy, NERC will organise its research around seven science themes and our science will fall under the following themes: 

• Climate system
• Sustainable use of natural resources
• Earth system science
• Natural hazards
• Environment, pollution and human health
• Technologies

Increasingly over the period 2009-2014, our research themes will be reorganised (including requests for continued funding) under the NERC research themes.